- Title: Herbie Rides Again
- IMDb: link
Made six years after The Love Bug, Herbie Rides Again brings back the willful Volkswagen Beetle, and the setting of the firehouse, but nothing else. With Jim Douglas having left to race in Europe. Herbie has been left in the hands of his landlady Mrs. Steinmetz (Helen Hayes) who he seems to enjoy driving around and who is the last holdout preventing Alonzo A. Hawk (Keenan Wynn) from demolishing the area to build a new skyscraper.
A mustache-twirling villain in every sense, Hawk is foiled at every attempt to get Steinmetz out of the firehouse. He eventually turns to his goodhearted nephew Willoughby Whitfield (Ken Berry) who he tricks into helping him before Willoughby is befriended by Herbie, Steinmetz and her neighbor Nicole (Stefanie Powers) and decides to protect them, and the firehouse, against his uncle.
Berry and Powers are suitable replacements for Dean Jones and Michele Lee as is Wynn as the over-the-top villain. While the film recreates some of the various scenes of Herbie taking people for a ride, and bringing two lovers together, there’s no race for the car this time as his driving is limited to the city of San Francisco and, perhaps in the best sequences of the film, up and through Hawk’s skyscraper.
The sequel was a financial success for the franchise, both in theaters and later on home video, but it met with a mixed reaction from fans and critics leading to the return of Jones and taking he and Herbie back to the racetrack the next time out.
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The film is comprised mostly of gags and various driving sequences, both in races and around San Francisco, using rear projection. Not all the effects hold up nearly 60 years later, but the film’s goofy spirit certainly does.